Lily was a 67 year old married lady who had retired with her husband 7 years ago. After the initial enjoyment of retirement Lily soon became bored and disenchanted with her life feeling that she was of ‘no use to anyone’. Her GP had prescribed antidepressant medication and after 3 years of this not working she sought some additional help. In 4 sessions we managed to turn her life around. We started to structure her day, increase her daily activities and she developed a range of goals she wanted to achieve.
Brian was 47 years old, married with 2 children. He has been unemployed for the past 6 months due to depressive illness. He had had 3 previous bouts of depression since his teenage years. He did not know why they happened but just that his mood got worse until he found it difficult to function; he would then be signed off sick by his GP and prescribed antidepressant medication. After about 6 months the medication would work well enough for him to either go back to work or get a new job. He now wanted to break this depressive cycle so he sought help from me. Together we worked on his depression, identifying the triggers and working on more effective life coping strategies to help prevent a further relapse of his depression. We also looked at relapse prevention strategies and he practiced numerous tools to help him become his own therapist. It has now been 3 years since our last appointment and he emails me every 6 months or so just to let me know that all is well with him and that he hasn’t relapsed.
